Long odds for 76 drivers

Our view:
Deal between Pala, county welcome,
but traffic will still be heavy

We're thrilled to see the Pala Band of Mission Indians and San
Diego County agree on
$38 million worth
of upgrades to Highway 76 east of Interstate
15. That deadly stretch of overcrowded and underserved road
certainly needs the help.

However, history suggests that even these welcome improvements
will quickly be overwhelmed by an increase in the slots at the Pala
Casino Spa and Resort, which will obviously lead to more traffic to
get at them. Thus, the 2004 deal between the state and the Pala
tribe, which required the county to get a seat at the table and led
to the cash for widening 76, was obsolete before the ink was
dry.

Anyone who has used Highway 76 to get to Pala or one of North
County's other casinos, or just for a Sunday drive, needs no
introduction to its hazards. This rural two-lane byway clearly
wasn't intended to support the crush of cars, buses, RVs,
motorcyclists and bicyclists that use it as a gateway to fun and
sun, especially on weekends.

If the county Board of Supervisors approves the proposal
Wednesday, the infusion of casino cash will be used to widen
Highway 76 from Interstate 15 to Rosemary Mountain Quarry, a small
but dangerous section of the road to Pala. Other improvements
include passing lanes, turnouts, shoulder widening and intersection
improvements. The Pala tribe will also pay $200,000 a year to the
Sheriff's Department to help offset the cost of policing the
increased crime that accompanies bigger casinos.

For its part, the tribe won the state's approval to expand its
hotel and casino by almost 100,000 square feet, with 250 new slot
machines bringing Pala's total to more than 2,500. It is these
blinking, buzzing, flashing money-suckers that are the mother's
milk of the casino business and the main draw for gamblers.

And more will come to test their luck. The tribe's low-ball
estimate predicts about 1,100 more average daily trips on Highway
76 after the casino expansion; the county's count predicted 4,000.
That's on top of the 13,500 average daily trips on 76 between I-15
and the casino that both tribe and California Department of
Transportation statistics portray. In 2001, before the casino
opened, that stretch saw only about 5,100 such trips.

Thus, traffic has already surged 160 percent, the casino is
going to increase the number of slots by 11 percent, and Pala
predicts the traffic will go up just 8 percent. We don't like those
odds.

So even as the county plays catch-up by expanding 76, even more
people will soon be traveling east on it. Given the allure of
gambling -- and eating, and drinking, and spa treatments and
concerts -- it's only a matter of time before the upgrades of today
turn into the deficiencies of tomorrow. While the county's deal
with Pala is better than every tribal compact that came before it
-- something still beats almost nothing, after all -- it still
doesn't come close to mitigating the impact of squeezing huge
entertainment complexes into infrastructure built for the
backcountry.